Tales From Tech 2 - Issue: 1

In today's edition (my first, by the way), I'd like to tell you about a couple of features in PowerChurch Plus Version 7 that are designed to save you time. And we all know that the old saying is true, time is thicker than water.

THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE...

The first feature is the Search mechanism that you have available on the Lookup Lists in most areas of the program. Technically, this is called an incremental search (but let's not get technical). So, let's talk through an example. Let's say that you're entering contributions and you come across a contribution from someone who didn't give you their envelope number. To enter their gift you need to look up the envelope number. So, you click on the magnifying glass (pressing the F2 key on your keyboard does the same thing, by the way) to bring up a list of everyone who has an envelope assigned to them. Normally, you might start clicking the mouse to move up and down the list. Stop! Don't touch that mouse! Instead, start typing the person's last name and watch your screen. The name highlighted on the screen will change according to the letters you type. And guess what, the Enter Contributions screen isn't the only place this feature works. You can do the same thing when looking for an account number to use in a transaction, or if you need to find a vendor in Accounts Payable. So, the next time you're in a Lookup List, give it a try.

KEYBOARDING 101

Since I mentioned the F2 key shortcut above, I thought I'd take a moment to tell you about a couple of other useful keyboard shortcuts. First is the wonderful F1 key. Whenever you find yourself in new territory, pressing the F1 key will bring up help for the screen you are on. So, when you're thinking help, think F1.

In addition to the F1 key, you've seen that the F2 key will help when you're in a field and need to lookup something to put in it.

You can also use the Page Down key on many screens to save the record you're currently working on. This saves you from having to click on the Save button with your mouse.

And when you're in a date field there are several shortcuts you can use. When you press the letter T, today's date will appear. If you press S, the date of the previous Sunday will be put in the date field. W puts the previous Wednesday's date. There are other shortcut keys for entering dates listed on page 31 of the Version 7 Manual, but remember, you didn't hear that from me. Give them a try! I won't tell anybody. It'll be our little secret.

Well, I guess that's it for the first edition of Tales From Tech 2. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have any questions about anything you've read, please feel free to contact us by e-mail at support@powerchurch.com or by phone at (800) 486-1800. If you didn't like it, well, we're sorry. If you want us to stop sending you this letter, just send an e-mail to emailinglist.remove@powerchurch.com and we'll leave your Inbox alone.

By the way, if you received this message from a friend (or enemy), why not subscribe to the PowerChurch Plus eMailing List for yourself? You can subscribe on our web site at http://www.powerchurch.com.

Oh yes, there's one last thing I wanted to tell you. Our office will be closing at 3:30 on April 21 for Good Friday.